Just 11% of voters voted in Tunisia’s general election, with critics of President Kais Saied saying the empty polling stations were a testament to public contempt for his agenda and seizure of power.
However, Sunday’s runoff was higher than the first round in December, which had a turnout of 8.8%.
“Nearly 90 percent of Tunisian voters ignored this play and refused to take part in the process,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, leader of the country’s main opposition Front National Salvation, told journalists.
“I call on political groups and civil society to work together for change in the form of Kais Saied’s departure and early presidential elections.”
About 887,000 voters out of a total of 7.8 million voters cast their ballots, the Electoral Commission said. Final results were not expected on Sunday. Major parties boycotted the vote and most seats are expected to go to independents.
Sunday’s poor turnout was another blow to Saied, who has stripped the legislature of its powers and given himself wide-ranging authority since his dramatic rise to power in 2021.
On July 25, 2021, Saied sacked the government and froze parliament before dissolving it and pushing through a new constitution that gave him almost unlimited powers.
The latest poll was seen as the final pillar of Saied’s policy transformation, resulting in a new legislature that will have almost no power to hold the president or government accountable.
Opposition groups have accused Saied of a coup for shutting down the previous parliament in 2021 and say it destroyed the democracy built in Tunisia after the 2011 revolution – which sparked the Arab Spring.
Saied said his actions were both legal and necessary to save Tunisia from years of corruption and economic decline at the hands of a self-serving political elite.
Although his new constitution was approved in a referendum last year, only 30% of voters took part.
The economic decline in Tunisia, where some basic necessities have disappeared from shelves and the government has cut subsidies to head off a foreign bailout to stave off bankruptcy, has left many disillusioned with politicians and angry with their leaders.
“We don’t want elections. We want milk and sugar and cooking oil,” said Hasna, a woman shopping in the Ettadamon district of Tunis on Sunday.
Many Tunisians initially seemed to welcome Saied’s rise to power in 2021 after years of weak governing coalitions that appeared unable to revitalize an ailing economy, improve public services or reduce stark inequalities.
But Saied has articulated no clear economic agenda other than railing against corruption and unnamed speculators, whom he has blamed for soaring prices.
On Friday, rating agency Moody’s downgraded Tunisia’s debt and said it was likely to default on government bonds.
Portal and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report